Thousands of workers join pickets across Cork

Steven Fox

Public sector workers in Cork joined hundreds of thousands of workers around the country in taking strike action yesterday, Wednesday 14 October, after a final overture from Government to prevent the action was rejected by the Public Service Committee (PSC) of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU).

Civil servants, teachers, university staff, doctors, nurses, hospital support staff, and a range of other public sector employees joined pickets outside their workplaces in the latest escalation of the ongoing public pay deal dispute.

Rose Smyth, Fórsa representative at Cork city library on Grand Parade, said that workers feel like they had no choice but to go out on strike.

"Everybody here today is a committed public service worker and we believe strongly in the service we provide because it's a service for all the community.

"I'm doing this for the younger staff coming in, they're really struggling to make ends meet in the cost of living crisis," she said.

She said that the workers were hopeful that the dispute can be resolved following the strike, but that pay and cost of living must be on the table to prevent a second round of strike action on Wednesday 21 October.

Disruption to public services

The strikes caused significant disruptions across the health service, according to information released by HSE South West.

Routine hospital procedures, outpatient appointments, and community-based services including day services, clinics in primary care services and other scheduled care services were cancelled.

However, emergency departments, ambulance services, and other critical, time-sensitive healthcare services - such as urgent cancer treatment and dialysis - continued based on agreements on derogations to the strike agreed between the HSE and public sector unions.

The HSE also said engagement on contingency arrangements in the event of a second day of strike action on 21 October were ongoing.

Cost of living demands

The cost of living crisis is at the forefront of workers' demands to Government.

Richie Bell, President of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland said: “Since June, the Government has refused to commit to resolving the inflation-pay gap that has emerged. The provision of €1.2bn in Budget 2027 would amount to a pay cut in real terms.”

"The Government is effectively asking teachers to do more for less. The message from teachers is clear: addressing the inflation-pay gap must be front and centre of any talks," he said.

Unite the Union's Irish Secretary Susan Fitzgerald said: "Ever increasing prices mean public sector workers have already seen their pay fall in real terms.

"Our members are determined to fight for a pay increase which protects their living standards," she said.

The unions have said that if an agreement on the issue at hand cannot be reached following yesterday's day of strike action, then a further day of strikes will proceed on 21 October.

The dispute emerged following a failure in talks which aimed to set out the conditions for talks on a public sector pay deal to replace the deal which expired in July this year.

Public sector workers have been engaged in a work-to-rule action since 5 October.

This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.